¶ … cells to combat and beat back inflammatory breast cancer cells. The questions that will be answered and details included will include the overall hypothesis of the study, the materials and methods of the study, the treatment of the experimental group, whether the scientists involved followed the scientific method and what the author of this report personally concludes from this study. While all studies have limitations and limited scope in terms of what can be surmised, this study was done quite well and looks rather promising.
The overall hypothesis of the study is that epigallocatechin-3-gallate cells inhibit the spread and progress of inflammatory breast cancer cells. The treatment conditions of the study is that SUM-149 and SUM-150 cells were isolated on their own from primary inflammatory invasive ductal carcinoma. Cells were frozen and then grown in a verifiably cancer-free way. ALDH-positive cells were isolated using fluorescence activated cell sorting. Cell growth and survival were assessed to measure progress and performance. The control samples contained BAAA and other substances and average ATP levels were measured in control and non-control samples (Mineva et al., 2013).
One specific result of the study that was to be looked at centered on the reduction of growth of pre-existing tumors derived from SUM-149 stem-like cells. This was done by looking at these cells after they were injected into female mice. The control population did not get the EGCG injection while the other mice did. The ones that got the EGCG showed a significant reduction in tumor size as compared to the non- EGCG group. The authors absolutely followed the scientific method as they had a theory that EGCG would reduce tumor size, among other things, and they tested this by comparing treatment with the EGCG and a control group that did not receive EGCG but was presumably otherwise treated the same (Mineva et al., 2013).
As far as whether this result could be supported or not, this would indeed be the case if indeed everything else was the same and identical between the two groups except for the use (or non-use) of the EGCG. However, the one hole that could be poked in that theory is whether such results would extend to larger animals up to and including humans. Indeed, monkeys and apes are much closer to humans biologically and physiologically. However, this study with mice is a good first step but it is one of many. In other words, this is not a definitive result that will definitely extend to humans. It does not even mean that human trials will ever happen. However, that could happen eventually but it will depend on the interim results (Mineva et al., 2013).
Conclusion
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